ESSAYS IN VERSE

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 16, 18 July 1914, Page 13

ESSAYS IN VERSE

A SYMPHONY. Holloa, my bully, and bang the drum ! All tho fun of tho fair! Waxwork figures from palace and slum Move with a lifelike air. •Hero we show you, in a>ll their variety, Moths that enrich tho name Of gas-fed, spluttering Notoriety, Often mistaken for Fame, And flies, disgustingly stuck in the honoy They thought to have found so sweet, When the loot of the hives where bees make money „ Was potted in Lombard-street^ Here are samples of new Nobility, Seated on bags ot gold, Trying to look^ without imbecilitj-, Feudal, baronial, and old ; And, bdyond, in procession never ending, All who are lured by the chanco Of a lucky coup in the grea.>t Pretending, A prize in the shadow-dance ; Eager snobs and strenuous gluttons, Hunters of trivial loves, Soulsmade happy with etars and buttons, Serious judges of glovee. Pot-house oracles, chapel thunderers, All tho various fry Of toilers, dreamers, chattorcrs, blunderers-/ You— and the others— and 1. With few illusions left In our various ways wo grope Through tho dusky paths of a world bereft ' Of ft highly respectable hope* Each of us setting a price On thait which he values most^ Some paying high for a favourite vioo, And some for a harmless boasts Most of us weaving a net Of gossamer words, to bind Unruly visions and dreams that fret, And the over-candid mind. But out of the makc-believo and the sham, And the doubt as to whether I was, or am, Or ever shall bo-*-or who (- nnd how, Is the conscious Mystery living now, Emerges Something, perfectly sure Of deep voracities, that endure Behind tho ridiculous waxwork show. And those who haive courage to look below » The veil of delusion round the«avth Will shortly be getting thoir moneys worth. —Arthur E. J. Legcg. From '"A Symphony." A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S STORM. Night, Lightning, Thunder, Rain « I see black Night Open her lips ; Her teeth gleam bright, A moment Been, Then oomes rich laughter; And happy toarß, That follow after, Fall on the bosoms Of birds and blossoms. — W. H. Davies, The NaAion, THE FIRST GIPSY FIRE. Before the larch«plumes feather, | Before the ferns unfold. In the grey of tho mid'Maroh weather A flower is born on the wold) A red flower starring the shadows, A pible flower decking the day, A bud in the grasslces meadows, r A bloom by the rain-wet way. Tirst flower of the field, first comer To tell that the Spring is hero ; First flag that is flown for Summer, First word of tho waking year; Of flame are its rose-red petals, Its leaf soft smoke in the trees, And the hum of its gipsy kettles The drone of tho questing be.es. —Will H. Ogilvie. Westminster Gaaette. A GREAT HISTORICAL FIND. A document of extreme historical Interest has just been discovered in London. The o^vner of a box of old paporb which had long remained unopened in. a library determined to go through them recently.* Among the contents no found a large volume' bound in af»eblacU«ned calf, containing a long series of entries on parchment leaves. These entries were written in a, close small script in law French and here and there in Latin. Experts have now examined this book and pronounced it to be the records of the English estates of the Black Prince, of expenses in connection with them, and of other kindred subjects. There is a reference in it to an assembly of the Order of the Garter, which seeme to be th© earliest such reference extant. Tho Black Prince (1330-76), son of Edward 111., fought at the battles of Crecy nnd Poitiers, and was one of the great characters of English chivalry, lie wag one of the original Knights of the Garter. Thero are details of the Christmas presents given and Teceived at , the Court of King Edward 111., and various payments are noted which throw «, great deal of light on the life of the Royal household of that. day. To supply the public with the best possible value- at a moderate price has been the one aim of Messrs. Mackio and Co., the proprietors of "WHITE HORSE" Whisky. That i they have been eminently succcsuful is show:, oy the reputation and the admitted value •of thoir famous "WHITE JLORSiS'i allovce the 3yorldi,«g-^dvt v